Results day at college today which is always a little emotional for good and bad reasons. All of my students passed, which was good, but they didn’t always pass all courses, which is less so.

So come 3.30 it was time to escape and draw something so off to PC World I went to do 70 minutes of drawing. Which I have been known to do off and on (and on)… (and on). (As well as at the Gadget Show and so on).

I started off with a LG G3, which I’ve wanted to draw on for a while:

Which I liked loads. VERY nice screen and built in art (and notes) app which worked very smoothly. Drawn with a Jot Script stylus (as were all of the pictures below as well).

Once I’d drawn on that my eye went to an Asus hybrid laptop. I’ve wanted to draw on an Asus Vivotab 8 for a few weeks now and this was as close as they got. No idea what to draw and a brief trawl through the sludge of my memory came up with a Cyberman so that’s what I drew using the very wonderful Fresh Paint app:

(which I also liked loads and makes me more interested than even to draw on a Vivotab 8).

And then, as I still had a few minutes left of the hour I’d allotted myself, I drew on a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 2014 edition. I’d been told that side of the shop had a Samsung Galaxy Pro to hand but that proved not to be the case but, while that side of the shop, I decided to draw on the more recent version of the tablet instead:

All in all a lovely hour (well, 70 minutes) of drawing… Enjoyed doing the Cybermen too, so may come back to them in the future.

So it’s been a HECK of a month (and we’re still only 10 days into it…)

It started with the end of year graphics exhibition. Well. Exhibitions. One at the Bar Des Arts in Guildford, courtesy of the very amazing Kath Jones’ organisational excellence, followed, three days later by the graphics takeover of the Creative Corridor from my good self, Aidan, Beth, Gio, Alex and Kath again.

One the wine had worn off from the open evenings it was back on the road to the #CreateNow event hosted by Adobe all over the world. I had a ticket to waddle up to the London leg of the journey and, while there it was… well… This was the first picture I drew, in Adobe Sketch on the tube from Waterloo:

The excellent @BeatleJase lent me his Slide ruler (see what they did there?) from the get go, which is why I went easy on him when drawing:

(to be fair this was drawn at the end of the day and we were all a bit punchy)

The first pic I drew with Slide was this:

Took a bit of getting used to, and I don’t think I’m the target market for it, but it’s a very nicely constructed piece of kit. Beautifully so. It feels too light to be a working unit and then, when you lay it on the screen, it… to borrow a phrase, just works.

So after the brickwork I drew this:

… and, again, I was impressed with how effortlessly the ruler was a part of the screen.

Now… the problem with an Adobe Create Now event is that, really and truly, I would love to be just listening and catching up on what’s being said and the new functions that are being teased. But I felt like I should be drawing, so, with only half of my attention on the stage I’m pretty sure this actually happened:

Eventually the effortlessly cool @Mchaize and @Rufusd finished their product demos and I held Rufus up with a water pistol filled with indelible purple ink. One of us was coming out of the stand off inked.

Fortunately for both of us the water pistol was whisked away by the Adobe magicians to be turned into the next big input device*. And I had an Ink stylus to play with for an hour…

*Copyright me. A water pistol screen input was always going to happen I’m astounded no-one came up with it before me.

The problem was – Rufus happily told me once the ink/water pistol had been whisked away – that the Ink stylus only works (currently) with iPad 4 and up. And me, being a part time teacher with an understanding – but equally part time teacher – wife, am still on my trusty 3.

Help was at hand and I hooked up with another show attendee who was happy to share her iPad 4 with the Ink stylus. I didn’t mind sharing… much… 🙂 The combination of not my stylus and not my iPad led to this:

Incidentally the final pic above was an excellent talk, as was the talk which preceded him about Hollywood special effects but by that point I was happy to just let things happen. All in all the day completely delivered on its remit of showcasing awesome aspects of creativity and made me want to play with desktop software which is not always the case as I’m far more at home with a tablet (or several tablets).

Sadly once Rufus worked out that I’d swapped his stylus for a banana I had to get the heck of (colour) Dodge:

and all of that art and exercise led to Stylus T. and I being tired little screen painting partners on the way home:

Although somewhere along the line I think I dreamt that I carried on with my Frog and Blueteeth picture which since the Inky addition has now had a Jot Touch PixelPoint added to it too.

And that is that, I think. ’twas an excellent day, as the Adobe shows always are. Loved being able to sit and draw in it. All of the above pics, natch, were drawn with Adobe Line (free), Sketch (free) and Photoshop Touch (not free but worth every penny) on an iPad 3, iPad 4 or Tesco Hudl. Hope you like.

On the Jot Touch PP score… I’d love to play with the Ink and Jot next to each other. I’ve got some things I want to say about the Touch but I want to play with the Ink at the same time to see if my thoughts are still fair…

On arrival, once we’d safely stowed the one wheeled objects away of course, we headed out for dinner. That was always going to be at Honest Burger in Camden. Because pudding in Camden is always:

Chin Chins, but you knew that, right? This flavour is Mango sorbet with hot sawwce (chilli, garlic and other fiery ingredients) and Pistachio and Cardamon powder. Yum…. However:

Blimey.

Post dinner at Honest (yes, pudding came first) and drinkies at the Grafton we headed back to the hotel to have a very lovely chat with the Tech Camp team about their project that they would be showing off (something very cool called a Time Machine – strobe illuminated water droplets that could slow, stop and move backwards… ) prior to shut eye.

Five hours later and it was back up and running time. But that’s unfair on the hotel, which was excellent. Especially good were the complimentary Dairylea dunkers that had to be seen to be believed:

Ahem.

Onto the production studio for the show and a complimentary bacon sandwich, coffee and time for two pictures to be drawn on my trusty Tesco Hudl:

I honestly drew these before ‘the incident’ and no, I’m no claiming some sort of Odessa Effect style pictoral foreshadowing here.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

We were whisked past a very cool ceiling window:

before Nick was filmed riding the Jackal:

It was deemed more suitable for Nick to drive the Jackal after Tim the presenter flew off the front of the machine having let go of the dead mans switch (which is perfectly understandable as a thing to do. I’ve done similar myself on the Noway Nick built). I didn’t take a photo but it’s there for all to see on 4OD as of tomorrow I think. He ducked and rolled well though and was smiling/still positive about the invention, which was very good of him. Did cause a slight wound to the Jackal:

…but if you’re going to get a ding then for it to happen on a pre recorded sequence for a live morning show on a major TV network seems the best way of doing it.

Pre-record completed there was a run through of the sequence, which they were kind enough to let me stand in the background and draw:

and then after a short wait (when a slight debate about whether a potentially strobing light was more dangerous than a Tesla Coil or a laser gun):

we were onto the live sequence itself:

…and, since I didn’t get thrown out immediately I drew Yvette Fielding prior to her interview segment which followed the Maker Faire sequence.

… and then I was chucked out 🙂 Partially as a taxi was due to arrive to take Nick and I, and the unicycles, back to rainy Surrey. Which was a real shame… I’d have loved to keep drawing – especially would like to have drawn Lethal Bizzle and Katy B – but time was pressing and the studio staff had a million thinks to think about without also having to worry about an orange hairy potential trip hazard.

Then it was catch up with the family, sharing Easter presents, watching son play Wii Fit and, to chill, I hooked up with @DQSlothdude on iPad/Drawing Together app (all of the pictures above were drawn on my Hudl using either Sketchbook or Photoshop Touch) and drew this:

Yes, I know. I assume that (well, one or two people notwithstanding) you’re patient with the fact that I like creating images on a variety of touch screens. Occasionally I like to create images on a lot of screens in one day and today? Well. Was one of those days…

So I started in a meeting about all sorts of rubbish and how to deal with it and, after that, I splurged pictures onto a Tesco Hudl using Photoshop Touch app:

After that I found myself in a Carphone Warehouse shop drawing on a Sony Xperia Z with the in-built Note app:

Xperias used to be phones and tablets that I avoided, as they normally had not a single drawing or visual note making application installed to play with. Now Sony have both Sketch and Note and both are very good apps to have a test on and the Xperias work very well indeed.

After that I found myself in an o2 shop drawing on a Note 3 until the guy on duty asked if I would draw on his Note 10.1 instead…

(although by this time I think I was beginning to become away I should really be at home, waiting for the school bus and cooking dinner for the evening. So I drew both pics as quickly as I could and dashed back for the bus…)

Which brings me to…

Every so often I tell people I draw on buses. I suspect they think this:

…which I drew on the last bus of the day, on a Nintendo 2DS using the very playful and enjoyable New Art Academy cart.

I don’t draw on the actual bus itself but, as I often say to the students I teach, it’s all about finding your zone. I’m never more happy that when I can sit on a bus with some good music in my ears and a fully charged tablet to draw on. It’s my comfort draw place and that, in many ways, epitomises the magic of this increasingly powerful generation of tablet computer power. To have so many screens to choose from, to have so many marvellous styli, so many awesome apps? At prices that are frequently lower than the 1gb ram upgrade that I put in my first computer?

Amazing. We live in fabulously interesting times.

Videos to come. Processing now. On a laptop that feels slower and cludgier than the tablets I’ve drawn on through the day.

Here’s to computing evolution and the screens that throw data around at the glance of a finger tip.

I really should find time to update my ‘so you’ve bought/been given a tablet’ page as new styli and apps come out all of the time and my preferences have changed a little. However was mentioned yesterday in a tweet that I could suggest some of the best art apps on Android and here are my replies (because 140 chars is just not enough sometimes 🙂

Clover is interesting too in a hmm way. S Note is pretty good too if you have a Samsung.

Harmony + Webchemy work well if you have a web connection, PhotoViva is good odd. Drawing Pad good for all ages 🙂

Depending on what you have, it’s also all about stylus. Jot Script has worked on 90% of Android screens I’ve played with.

After that I tend to go for Dagi, Pogo Sketch Pro, Nomad Mini 2 or Compose + Stylus Sock for Android.

To be honest I might be being a bit harsh on Clover there. It’s a very cool, quirky and odd art app and I thoroughly enjoyed drawing with it yesterday. The only problem is that the interface is VERY unique and tends to take up a third of the screen, which is quite a lot on a 7 inch tablet. Also – I’m almost embarrassed to admit – I took a while to work out how to save/share a picture, even when I found the save button. It’s THAT obtuse an interface…

The start here is a note to me, more than to you, dear reader. I’ve been meaning to find the time to update the Buyers Guide post I did at Christmas and have been utterly snowballed with work and… well, all sorts really – especially as the year comes to a close.

But, since buying some Hudl tablets to do art classes with I’ve been re-evaluating my relationship with Android and have been on a search for the art apps that I can enjoy working with and teaching to others. There’s a longer post than this to come but here’s a top five of the apps I sit and draw in. I’ve arranged them (a little) in order of complexity.

S-Note: Yes. I know. It’s not really an art app, nor is it available across the Android range. But it’s smooth and quick and, on larger devices, keeps a process recording of what you’ve drawn. I like it a lot and, on the S4, is one of my most chosen go-to apps. I thoroughly enjoyed using the app on the Note 2 and 10.1s I used last year.

Didlr app: available cross platform (oh how lovely that is to be able to say) Didlr is free and lovely to use. It has a limited colour palette but remembers the animation as a matter of course and allows you to share both the image created and the animation through a range of social media outlets. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable app to work with.

PhotoViva: a photo editing app at heart it has a playful and interesting drawing engine hidden away from plain view. Ostensibly there to add a hand drawn painterly effect to a photo importing a blank image will allow you to paint on top with a brush that rotates as you go or has a scatter effect built in, or a jitter on the hue and saturation values or… well… you get the jist.

Photoshop Touch: So we get to the big boys… Adobe have a long and cherished history when it comes to art apps and Photoshop is so synonymous with digital art it has become the defining verb. So it’s no surprise to see it on the list is it?

Well, actually, yes it is. I’ve got a HUGE amount of love for Adobe and Photoshop 3.3 LE was a pivotal moment for me in art software use. But Photoshop Touch is still ‘getting there’ as an app rather than where it needs to be. The UI is very good, although the first screen you will see (after the loading screen) is a whole lot of clumsy. Sharing is also a bit quirky. Creative Cloud is great but not fully and completely integrated and the load time and occasional render time if you’re using a large brush at half opacity…? Well… The range of options is also, on the drawing side, a bit lacking (although to be fair the same criticism could be levelled at Didlr and PhotoViva) but the editing and photo manipulation tools are very sound.

But it is good and well worth the money. It’s funny how app store economies have skewed application prices – programmers and artists still need to be paid to develop – and Photoshop Touch is pricey for a mobile art package… but not at all when you consider the desktop prices. Maybe this is why it’s so infrequently updated? Regardless – I’ve got a lot of love for Photoshop Touch but often think more about what it could be rather than what it is.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro: While Photoshop 3.3 LE was a huge eye opener for me in what an art app could be Autodesk provided one of the first art packages that I fell in love with. While D-Paint on the Amiga was ‘the first’ Ani Pro was probably my favourite 2d animation app of all time. Sigh. Those were, very much, the days. I still remember paying ‘HOW MUCH?’ for a 486 SX with 512 m of ram (I think) to work with Ani Pro at home.

OK, back on subject. Eagle eyed readers will know that I have had a love/hate relationship with the app in the past. The UI takes a bit of getting used to and, even though I know my way around it now, I wouldn’t say I like it. The brush opacity seems bilked to the point of uselessness. The brushes are great but I truly have no idea how to associate them to UI slots nor the secret sauce of being able to swap between two brushes even though there is a button which says it will do this magically useful thing (on some devices anyway). SImilarly – some brushes will scale very large and others will not, but there’s no warning about which is which and often you have to rely on memory to remember the effect each brush type will have and whether it will be a fine or wide ended splash on the screen.

BUT – and it took me a while – it’s a fab app. On iOS there’s a process video recording tool which I hope makes it over the Android side of the fence sometime and the toolset of brushes and variables is very cool. It also works very well with pressure sensitive styli. I LOVE the symmetry paint – which I seem to remember them being the first to implement – and some of the brushes are quirky and brilliant. There’s no real level of cohesion between the multi-platform nature of the app but, on Android, it’s probably my favourite go-to ‘proper’ art and design choice.

So there you have it: Android art apps in a nutshell. I’ll get onto an updated styli and iOS art apps list soon but this’ll have to do for the mo’. Masses of work paperwork to stop being avoided 😉